Porter Robinson had already moved beyond festival-ready EDM by the time Worlds, a full-length debut filled with widescreen electro-pop tunes inspired by anime and video games, arrived in 2014. After the album became a massive success, topping Billboard's Dance/Electronic Albums chart and influencing numerous producers, Robinson felt pressured to deliver another major statement that would live up to his reputation. He scored a gold-certified hit with "Shelter," his 2016 collaboration with Madeon, and following the duo's extensive international tour, he branched off with Virtual Self, a hyper-fun side project influenced by trance and Dance Dance Revolution, which surprisingly earned the producer his first Grammy nomination.

Picnic is the first full-length collaboration between Kansas City’s Ryan Loecker (aka mdo, co-founder of the C Minus label) and Melbourne, Australia’s Justin Cantrell (aka ju ca, founder of the Daisart label). Loecker came a little late to the Midwestern scene, releasing his first music in 2016 and forming C Minus in 2017. But the communal spirit of Secret Musik lives on in Picnic, which doubles as an international ambient summit welcoming Australia’s Daisart into the fold. Heavy on guest features, Picnic is a celebration of ambient music as a social phenomenon.
"Bunnyville" is built around what sounds like a bundle of necklaces being untangled, around which all manner of soupy effects slosh and swish. "Drops in the Water," a collaboration with Detroit artist Theodore Cale Schafer, is permeated with fiery crackles that emerge from a deep, droning house chord…